‘Made-to-Order Manufacturing’ Category

Inventory Control Software–Tools to Optimize your Warehouse

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Inventory Control Software – How does it help you manage your warehouse?

Inventory Control Software is computer software and systems that are designed to keep track of the products that you stock in warehouses. Usually the warehouses are owned by the company, but sometimes they can be third party logistics (3pl) locations as well. This software usually has a facility to keep track of on-hand quantities, receipts of products and shipments of products such that at a moments notice, users can tell what is available to sell to customers.

Inventory Control Software – Part of a bigger picture

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Tags: al, business management software, ca, ct, erp software solutions, inventory control software, inventory management software, mn, nj, ny, pa, tn, tx
Posted in Distribution, Epicor 9, Made-to-Order Manufacturing, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Sage MAS 500, Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP Business One | No Comments »

What is Sales and Operations Planning and Why Should we Worry About it?

Monday, May 24th, 2010

By: Donald Clark CFPIM, CSCP

Balancing demand with supply is the basic objective of every single enterprise. This is easy to state but as it turns out, not so simple in practice. Some organizations meet this balance well, while others survive through crisis management.

Those that do not bring supply and demand into balance suffer the consequences. Excess inventory, disrupted production schedules, missed deliveries, etc., become the norm. All of these conditions create a huge amount of waste and then the finger pointing begins, pitting departments against each other. Ultimately, it is our customers who suffer and sure enough, they will begin to go away.

On the other hand, a thorough understanding of demand, along with developing a comprehensive supply strategy to meet that demand, will allow organizations to effectively produce and deliver product, with greatly reduced waste. A vital tool to achieve this goal is the sales and operations planning process.

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) brings together all of the functions of an organization to create a companywide game plan. The output of this plan forms the basis for all of our short-term decisions and activities. Beyond the immediate result of creating this agreed upon plan, sales and operations planning helps in breaking down the barriers that exist between our departments and helps the company to move forward as a cohesive team.

Once a month, at least, the top people from each department work together to review actual performance since the last meeting, identify areas of improvement, determine the next period’s projected demand and then make sure the resources exist to meet that demand.

Dynamics AX 2009 provides users with the tools they need to perform the S&OP processes. It has item forecast capability, resource profiles to see how much work can be done and load profiles to see the effect of operations plans on existing capacity.

If you would like to take a look at it, let us know. Thanks and have a great day.

Tags: AX, ca, california, dynamics ax, erp, new jersey, nj, sales improvement
Posted in Industry Insights, Made-to-Order Manufacturing, Made-to-Stock Manufacturing, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Other | No Comments »

Lean ERP – An Oxymoron?

Monday, May 24th, 2010

By: Donald Clark CFPIM, CSCP

By now, everyone has probably heard of, and many implemented, the concepts of “Lean”. You know – analyzing your processes, finding and eliminating waste, implementing Kanban methodology and pull systems, adopting Heijunka scheduling techniques and the like – these are what most people think of when they think of Lean.

There are the Lean purists in the world who will be happy to tell you that a company (I am thinking of a manufacturing company here) who is truly lean no longer needs an ERP system to do things like planning, scheduling and execution. I have heard from some folks that ERP becomes obsolete as a company becomes lean; that Lean and ERP are mutually exclusive and therefore calling any ERP system lean is an oxymoron.

I say that this is not true.

As a student of manufacturing practices for the past 26 years, I have seen many theories become popular, many companies adopt them, consultants make money teaching them, and then they get ditched by the side of the road for the new “flavor of the month”. Is Lean one of these fads? No.

However, to say that Lean will render ERP obsolete in manufacturing companies, just does not fly. Back in the 1970’s and 80’s when Just in Time (Lean’s father) was gaining acceptance, there were those who said that it would make MRP obsolete. True JIT practices, they said, would eliminate the need for detailed planning that MRP provides. This never happened. JIT practices were focused on execution and without MRP planning materials there would be nothing available to produce.

Just like in the JIT/MRP relationship of the past, the best planned and executed Lean program still requires the tightly integrated material planning engine that an ERP system gives us. In fact, an ERP system can help a company better manage their Lean initiatives. How so?

Take for example Lean Manufacturing in Dynamics AX 2009. In this module, users can automate many lean processes including:

Sales-order driven scheduling
Kanban management
Work flows
Reporting by exception
Heijunka scheduling
Etc.

I would not mind showing you how lean works in an ERP system if you have the time and inclination. Thanks and have a great day.

Tags: AX, ca, california, erp, erp software, lean manufacturing, new jersey, nj
Posted in Industry Insights, Made-to-Order Manufacturing, Made-to-Stock Manufacturing, Microsoft Dynamics AX | No Comments »

MAS 200 and MAS 90 Support Services

Monday, April 12th, 2010

This post is to remind you of the capabilities we have at Clients First Business Solutions.

Clients First Business Solutions is proud to be one of the top Sage, Microsoft and SAP Software resellers in the country.

We are a full-service business systems consulting company that specializes in the design, implementation and support of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) accounting software and management reporting systems.

Clients First provides a variety of services including implementation, training, consulting and ongoing technical support and solution recommendations.

At Clients First Business Solutions, we offer a wide range of solutions including: accounting, human resources, payroll, fixed asset management, customer relationship management, e-commerce software and EDI. Whatever your needs, we can recommend the proper solution.

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Tags: mas200, mas90, services
Posted in Distribution, Food Processing, Made-to-Order Manufacturing, Made-to-Stock Manufacturing, Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 | No Comments »

Sage ERP X3 – Another Overview Video

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Here is another Sage X3 video that Sage has posted that gives a nice look at its capabilities. This is a fairly high end system that sits between the ‘mid market’ such as Microsoft Dynamics or Sage MAS 90/200 and ‘tier 1’ applications such as SAP R3 or Oracle.

Click below to view:

Tags: ca, ct, dynamics, Dynamics NAV, erp software, Massachusetts (MA), navision, nj, ny, pa, pennsylvania, x3
Posted in Food Processing, Made-to-Order Manufacturing | No Comments »

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